Bath Rugby Community team celebrate Tackling Numbers scheme

13 July 2012

On 10th July, the Bath Rugby Community Team hosted a tag rugby festival for more than 130 local school children in celebration of Tackling Numbers, a programme helping to teach basic mathematics to thousands of school children across England.

The children, from different schools across the Banes and Wiltshire area, had previously spent five weeks studying the programme which uses interactive classroom sessions and practical number-based rugby games to help teach important numeracy skills.

Catt Davidson from the Bath Rugby Community Team said: "The tag rugby festival is a fun way of bringing together all the Year 4 children who have taken part in Tackling Numbers this year and allowing them to put some of what they have learnt into practice. The programme uses the power of rugby to promote the understanding and learning of numeracy in a fun and exciting way and the children have really enjoyed it."

Developed by MBNA in partnership with Premiership Rugby, Tackling Numbers, now in its second year, is supported and delivered by all 12 Premiership Rugby teams. In its first year, the programme reached 8,400 eight and nine years old in 280 different schools across England.

Ian O'Doherty, Europe Card Executive for MBNA, said: "Tackling Numbers is all about engaging children in mathematics in a practical and enjoyable way because it's important that we provide young people with the knowledge to help them manage their money in the future.

"We hope this programme provides them with a memorable experience but more importantly, a foundation for good numeracy skills and financial literacy in adulthood."